The stress of rebellion.
Creative Staff:
Story: Jason Aaron
Art: John Cassaday
What They Say:
The greatest space adventure of all time continues! Luke Skywalker is not a Jedi, not yet, at least. He’s only ever met one Jedi in his life…and he died. So, Luke’s quest leads him back to Obi-Wan’s hut on Tatooine.
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
The opening three issue arc of Star Wars was certainly fun with what it wanted to do and it did some interesting things with echoes to the past in regards to various cues, phrases and character actions. But now that we’re past it, this issue feels like it’s taking a bit of time to breathe at last and start putting pieces into play after dazzling us a bit with the opening storyline we got. This works pretty well, especially if you’re like me and enjoy seeing the small movements within the grand picture, as there are ideas that can be worked well here, especially when taken in complement to the other series out there at the moment that Marvel’s running in this universe. The shape of things to come is certainly coming into view, though with some amusing crossovers along the way.
Following the events of the Cymoon-1 action, both sides are essentially taking a breather. It’s expected that the Empire took a real hit between that and the Death Star, so seeing Vader making personal calls to various persons of power in the outer rim makes sense as he returns to Tatooine and ensures that Jabba takes the deal that the Emperor is offering him for whatever they need for supplies and materials. Jabba’s amusing to watch in this as he knows his place but also knows what he can get away with, especially after the deal made in Vader’s ongoing series itself. There’s some verbal sparring going on here that Vader attempts to stay above, but we do get to see him involved on Tatooine again and there are some really nice little moments where it sinks in just how far back his history here goes and the kinds of connections he wasn’t aware of for so long, such as Kenobi residing here. Gathering stories from here through Jabba about him certainly helps to fill things out with the past.
On the rebel side, they’re pressing their attacks on a dozen locations across a dozen worlds or so, but Leia knows it’s not crippling the Empire, though it is hurting them. She wants to push back harder, but the truth of the matter is that since losing their base on the fourth moon of Yavin, they’re on the run and dealing with that kind of mindset, leaving them capable of doing only so much. She’s intent on doing more damage and really making an impact, but the older leaders are trying to caution her on it, both for the fleet and the rebellion as a whole, but also for her particular team that they see as getting worn down by it. This is made most apparent with Luke, as he’s struggling with who he is at this point after his last encounter with Vader, as that made it clear to him that he really doesn’t have much in the way of power and is barely at the first step of what it means to become a Jedi.
The rest of the familiar cast doesn’t get much time outside of a couple of panels, though Han gets a little more in working with Chewie and then seeing Luke heading off to find himself a bit. What we do get related to Han though is tied to Tatooine again as we see a mysterious person covered from head to toe that’s looking to him, and taking out some Rodians along the way. This is pure setup and I’m definitely interested to see what new original material will be delved into here. But we also get a case of the familiar later, as those same Rodians find themselves on the end of a different blaster with Boba Fett having come to get information about Kenobi in his efforts to find Luke, as per Vader’s orders. As much as I like the character of Boba Fett, I’m still wary of his presence in the series since it’s the kind of character where less, or nothing, is better, and his theatrical time is what really needs to stand the test of time.
In Summary:
More setup than anything else, Star Wars provides some potential for what’s going to come next and nudges a couple of character stories well enough. I like what we see with Luke and his struggle, though I would have liked to have seen a bit touched on with Leia and her desire to really make a big impact on the Empire. Her motivations are honest enough after Alderaan, but I’d like to see a little more nod to events in her own miniseries. The big focus that works for me is the Darth Vader material, which connects to his own series and events that happened there, as the time between him and Jabba makes for some really fun dialogue but also just their interactions in general with the power imbalance that exists that Jabba tries to play down. Good stuff all around, and a welcome break from the non-stop action we had in the first three installments.
Grade: B
Age Rating: All Ages
Released By: Marvel Comics via ComiXology
Release Date: April 22nd, 2015
MSRP: $3.99
